By Quentin Young | editor

“This is the reality of families dealing with immigration detention. You can't even find your relatives half the time.”

– Henry Hollithron, immigration attorney

Rudy Villeda Mejía runs a roofing business in northern Washington that has struggled since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him in March. (Photo courtesy of Mabel Shaffer)

By Lindsey Toomer

Rudy Villeda Mejía, who spent just over four months in immigration detention in Aurora, is home with his family in northern Washington state. His journey home was drawn out, as his family and attorney struggled to locate him when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released him without his passport in a state more than 2,000 miles from home after the agency nearly deported him.

A next-generation Amtrak Airo train carries Colorado state and local officials for a ride on the test track at the federal Transportation Technology Center near Pueblo on Friday. (Photo by Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)

By Chase Woodruff

The fate of a decades-long effort to restore intercity passenger rail service to the Front Range is now in the hands of Colorado voters. The board of the Front Range Passenger Rail District voted 14-1 Friday to refer a sales tax measure to the November ballots of voters in 30 municipalities along the planned route of the Colorado Connector rail service between Pueblo and Fort Collins. Under a multi-phase plan announced by the FRPR district earlier this summer, the operation of a Colorado Connector “starter service,” between Fort Collins and Denver, is already on track to launch with three daily round trips by 2029 — with or without the additional tax revenue.

A Colorado Press Association sign is seen at the organization's 148th annual convention Saturday at Delta Hotels Denver Thornton. (Photo by Quentin Young/Colorado Press Association)

By Quentin Young

Colorado Newsline earned seven awards in the 2025 Colorado Press Association Better News Media Contest, the results of which were announced during a ceremony Saturday at the association’s annual convention. The contest included entries from dozens of print and digital news outlets from across Colorado. Newsline’s haul included three first place awards, and every one of Newsline’s four full-time journalists won at least one award.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Thanks for reading Newsliner. Did you know our weekend digest is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.